A perfect running gift

Energy for the holidays

Yesterday afternoon my friend and colleague KWL presented me with a thoughtful holiday gift: GU and Roctane gels plus Kind bars.

I really appreciated it and loved the presentation. The banner at the top says "Happy Running in 2012!" That's the spirit! I'm hoping that next year KWL and I will match or exceed our running and biking adventures of 2011.

An unexpected sprint

Today's workout (elliptical): 36 minutes

It's day one of my year-end break and I started it with a longer than usual elliptical workout. It's a busy day today so I started early. This allowed me to extend past my standard 25 minutes. I put on the TV and picked one of the music channels on the cable box. Before I knew it 36 minutes had passed and I needed to move on.

I felt so good during that workout that I could have easily gone for an hour or more.  When I came downstairs my kids were about to leave for school. I said goodbye but after they'd left, my wife discovered that my son had forgotten his phone. He is getting together with a group of friends after school so we felt he needed to have it. Since I was still dressed for a workout, I grabbed the phone and ran to the school. I caught him just before he and my daughter went inside.

That sprint to the school provided a nice second workout and I sprinted home because I was cold. The temperatures were in the 40's and I was wearing shorts and a short sleeved jersey, already sweat-soaked from my elliptical session. I'm looking to cover some quality miles this weekend and throughout next week. Vacation running is the best.

News flash - GPS watches aren't accurate



Graphic from 12/19 NY Times article
Photo credit: Martin Strauss, via Garmin and Microsoft

 Today's run (street): 2.5 miles
There was an article in Tuesday's New York Times about the accuracy (or should I say, inaccuracy?) of GPS watches. The writer made the same point that I've been making for years, that GPS technology does not provide exact measurement. The same can be said for smartphone GPS apps that show lots of metrics and graphics, but also under-count distance. The thing is, if your distance is off, so is everything else, including pace.

I'm a bit of a belt and suspenders guy when it comes to tracking my runs. I use a Garmin FR210 GPS watch to capture my run metrics and route. But later, I usually measure where I had run using Gmaps to get the most accurate distance. This way I can calculate my true pace. Why use the Garmin if I know it's inaccurate? Good question. But just try taking my Garmin away from me...

This morning I got back outside for my early run and was rewarded with dry roads and mild temperatures. There was wind coming from the north that, when traveling head-on, made things chilly. Most of my route went either south or east so it wasn't a problem. I managed an average pace, though my PE (perceived effort) was higher than that result. Then again, when you get your performance information from a GPS watch, you never know what to believe!

Hard runs are only fun once you're done

Today's run (treadmill): 2.7 miles

I elected to run indoors again this morning since the rains had moved in last night. I got a jump start on my  morning run because I woke up six minutes early and started on the treadmill at 3:50 AM. That allowed me to get in a hard run and still have time to relax with coffee before heading to the shower.

After yesterday's easy run with a 2% incline, I decided to push the pace today. I never re-calibrated the treadmill after replacing the console, so I don't really trust the treadmill's speed readout. 6.3 MPH on the machine feels more like a 9:00 mile on the road.

I started at 6 MPH and blipped the speed control every couple of minutes until I reached 7 MPH. I stayed with that throughout my 25 minute run. Easy runs feel good while you are doing them, but hard runs feel great when you finish. I chose to defer my enjoyment until after my workout and I'm glad I did. I'm hoping for some decent weather this weekend so I can get in some sorely needed distance runs.

Of treadmills and laziness

Today's run (treadmill - 2% incline): 25 minutes

I never thought that I'd consider myself lazy for getting up at 3:45 AM and running on the treadmill. But that's the way I felt this morning as I followed my indoor routine. There's no doubt that I prefer running outdoors to indoors, and ideally on trails. But the treadmill provides something that is irreplaceable at 4:00 AM -- time savings.

The amount of time it takes me to prepare for an outdoor run in cold weather is almost twice that of a treadmill run. With the additional gear and waiting for my Garmin to acquire a signal, I can easily lose 10 precious minutes. Surprisingly, my unabated hatred for the treadmill has given way to a qualified respect for its versatility. I've come to appreciate the capability to vary speed at the touch of a button and switch elevations on command.

So maybe laziness is the wrong word to describe why I chose the treadmill today instead of an outdoor run. Maybe practicality was the reason. All the same, If there's no rain tomorrow, I'll be back to the streets in the morning.